Karunaratne receives w/o in second match

From our special cor. in Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 13 - Sri Lanka's national champion Niluka
Karunaratne received a walk over in his second Group 'P' match of the
Olympic Games men's singles badminton tournament at Riocentro last
evening. Karunaratne was due to play Kevin Cordon of Guatemala in his
group 'P' match but the Pan American champion was forced to concede a
walkover due to an injury.

The Lankan lad who lost his opening Group 'P' match to China's Long
Chen in straight sets 7-21, 10-21 will now have to play his last group
match against Adrian Dziolko.

The Polish, ranked 58th in the world, will take on Karunaratne on
Sunday at 3.55 pm local time (12.25 am SL time on Monday). Cordon lost
his opening group 'P' match to Dziolko 1-2.

Having won the keenly contested first set, Cordon could not maintain
the same pace as Dziolko came back strongly to win by two sets to one
18-21, 21-10, 21-13.

Defending men's singles badminton champion Lin Dan of China
registered his second successive win in the tournament when he beat
Vladimir Malkov of Russia in straight sets 21-18, 21-7.

On the previous day, Dan crushed Austrian David Obernosterer, also in
straight sets 21-5, 21-11 in their group 'E' first round match.

The 32-year-old London 2012 gold medallist is in fine form and is
roaring to retain the title with another blistering performance.